By CHRIS BLANK
JEFFERSON CITY — Your bosses can still make you work weekends and give you projects you loathe. But Missouri lawmakers have voted to make it a crime if they order that a microchip be implanted in your arm.
Forcing someone to get a microchip implantis already barred in California, North Dakota and Wisconsin. Legislation awaiting Gov. Matt Blunt’s signature would make it a misdemeanor with a fine of up to $1,000 for a boss who demands that a worker get an implant.
Katherine Albrecht, an expert in consumer privacy and radio frequency identification, acknowledges that microchip implants might sound like “black helicopters and tin foil hats.”
But Albrecht, the founder of AntiChips.com, and other critics argue there are tangible medical, privacy and religious worries driving attempts to pass laws banning forced implants.
“The people who oppose it don’t understand how real the threat is, and the people who are gung-ho don’t understand its power,” Albrecht said.
She has been trying to persuade state lawmakers across the country to pass legislation gulating technology that allows for tagged items to be tracked when microchips send off a radio signal to special readers. The information can then be linked to ...   more »